The Journal

Orden or Sorel: which leather briefcase to choose

Orden is 42 × 30 × 10 cm at €139, Sorel is 42 × 30 × 8 cm at €169. Same face, 2 cm apart in depth, and the deeper bag is the cheaper one. Which to take, and when neither is right.

Does RFID Protection in a Wallet Actually Matter?

RFID blocking is on every wallet listing. The shielding does work, but skimming a card through a pocket is a narrow risk, and a wallet is worth choosing on card count, size and leather instead.

Is a Leather Glasses Case Worth Carrying?

A rigid case, a soft leather case and a microfibre pouch protect against three different things. Here is which one your week actually calls for, and the three measurements that decide whether your ...

A leather bag in rain, salt and cold: what to actually do

Rain rarely ruins a leather bag. Bad drying does. What to do the evening it gets soaked, how to handle winter road salt and cold, and whether a proofing spray is worth it.

Where a Bag Tells the Truth About Itself

A maker cutting cost cuts it where a camera will not go. So everything worth knowing about how a bag was made lives in four places product photography never shows.

Refined or Sporty: What Decides How a Bag Reads

A bag is read as refined or sporty in the first second, before anyone registers the leather. Three things decide it, and price is not one of them.

Black or Cognac: The Only Colour Decision You Have

Black is the safer bag and cognac is the more interesting one. The decision is not made by looking at the bag. It is made by looking at the shoes you put on most mornings.

Does Nappa Leather Develop a Patina? What Actually Happens as It Ages

Nappa leather doesn't patina the way vegetable-tanned leather does. Here's what it actually does as it ages, and how to tell wear from damage.

Vegetable-Tanned vs Chrome-Tanned Leather: What Actually Changes

Two ways to turn a hide into leather, producing genuinely different objects. How each one behaves, what the chrome safety question actually is, and which method suits which product.

Leather vs Neoprene Laptop Sleeve: Which Protects Better?

Neither material does the protecting. The padding does. What leather and neoprene each actually decide, where each one honestly wins, and how to choose for the way you really carry a laptop.